The present invention relates to the use of heteropolyoxometalates for disinfecting purposes and in antimicrobial surfaces, paints or coatings and intermediates for their preparation.
In many industrial and domestic processes waste water is produced or fresh water is to be stored for later purposes. As essentially all water sources provide non-sterile water, in fresh water and in particular in waste water there is the risk of microbiological contamination during storage or processing.
Many ways are known in the art to avoid creation of microbiological contaminations, in particular biofilms, in containers for the storage of drinking water, waste water, surface water or similar liquids. Further, several methods are known to avoid microbiological contamination of surfaces, e.g. in hospitals or slaughterhouses. For example, usually the surfaces of containers are cleaned by heat treatment, e.g. by rinsing the surfaces or containers with hot liquids or gases, e.g. hot water or steam. Further, treatment by ozone or chlorine containing gases is known for disinfecting surfaces and containers and cleaning and removal of organic contaminations.
It is also known to apply ultraviolet (UV-) radiation to disinfect surfaces, containers, and even liquids. It is also known to add certain substances to the liquids, such as titanium dioxide, or to apply titanium dioxide to a surface for disinfecting or cleaning purposes. However, these surfaces and substances require UV-radiation for activating the disinfecting efficacy of titanium dioxide.
Further, it is known to apply silver ions or copper ions to solutions in order to reduce the microbiological contamination.
All these measures and procedures are disadvantageous as they waste a lot of energy, require high apparatus cost and costs of operation in order to be sufficiently effective, or rather expensive substances, such as silver ions or copper ions, have to be used, the latter having further disadvantages with regard to water and soil pollution. Further, using substances which are dangerous to handle, e.g. ozone or chlorine containing substances, as well as ultraviolet radiation, is disadvantageous and requires additional safety measures.
The use of polyoxometalates is known in the art for several purposes, e.g. in the general area of analytical chemistry (e.g. elemental analysis, electron staining), the use as catalysts including photo catalysts, in biochemistry for inhibiting electron transfer processes and as electron-dense and rigid components in the crystallization of biomolecules (e.g. ribosomes, leading to the 2009 Nobel Prize), and in medicine due to their antiviral and antitumor activity. The use of polyoxometalates as acid and oxidation catalysts is known in industry (e.g. for the hydration of olefins).
There is still a need in the art to provide an effective, environmentally friendly and cheap measurement to avoid microbial contamination of liquids and surfaces.